Let’sAIIQetRich 


By  J.  T.  McDILL 

Madden  Library  No.  5 

Published  Occasionally, 
and  Entered  at  the  Postoffice,  Chicago, 
as  Third-class  Matter. 


Two  Cents  a Copy,  15  Cents  a Dozen, 
One  Dollar  per  Hundred  postpaid.  To 
Stockholders,  Fifty  Cents  per 
Hundred,  Postpaid. 


Published  by 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  & COMPANY  (Co-Operative) 

36  Fifth  Avenue,  Chicag^o. 


LET’S  ALL  GET  RICH 


DonH  you  wish  you  were  rich?  We  know  you 
do.  Now  if  your  income  were  only  ten  dollars 
a day  instead  of  nine  dollars  a week,  wouldn't 
that  be  nice?  What  nice  clothes  you  would  buy 
for  your  wife  and  children!  And  what  a nice 
house  you  would  build!  With  baths  and  gas 
and  electricity  and  hot  and  cold  water.  A 
piano  and  nice  carpets  and  pretty  wall  paper 
and  rich  curtains  and  pictures  and  substantial 
furniture  and  rpaybe  a statue  or  two  in  real 
marble.  And  all  the  cooking  would  be  done  on 
a gas  range.  No  more  early  rising  on  cold 
mornings  to  fumble  with  coal  and  kindling.  No, 
sir!  It  would  be  a happy  little  home.  No  big 
houses  or  servants  for  me.  I would  hate  to 
have  any  of  my  family  be  servants  to  anybody 
and  sleep  in  the  cellar  and  do  the  work  which 
somebody  else  is  too  good  to  do.  And  I don’t 
think  I have  any  right  to  ask  other  people  to  do 
things  for  me  which  I wouldn’t  do  for  myself 
or  for  them  either  if  I could  help  it.  No,  we 
wouldn’t  have  a servant.  But  I wouldn’t  want 
mother  to  work  and  iron  clothes.  Not  much. 
Not -so  long  as  steam  laundries  exist.  I wouldn’t 
ask  any  other  body’s  mother  to  do  laundry  work 
either.  If  I had  an  income  of  ten  dollars  a day 
I would  be  comfortable.  You  can  bet  your  boots 
on  that.  And  I wouldn’t  care  very  much  what 
kind  of  work  I had  to  do  to  get  it  either,  just  so 
it  was  honest. 

Say,  you  workingman,  why  don’t  you  hustle 
around  and  get  yourself  a ten-dollar-a-day  job? 
Now  don’t  say  you  are  not  worth  it,  for  you  are. 
Don’t  say  it  is  impossible,  for  it  isn’t.  You 


LET'S  ALL  GET  RICH  3 

might  just  as  well  get  ten  dollars  a day  as  nine 
dollars  a week,  and  prices  won’t  go  up  either. 
Now  we  are  not  trying  to  get  you  into  a lottery 
scheme  or  the  patent  medicine  business.  We 
have  no  oil  well  for  sale.  Whatever  you  get  you 
w’ill  have  to  work  for  just  as  you  always  have. 
Because  you  always  worked  for  nine  dollars  a 
week  is  no  sign  that  you  always  must.  You  can 
work  up.  The  world  is  moving.  Things  are  not 
as  they  used  to  be,  even  a year  ago.  You  don’t 
need  to  learn  a new  trade  to  get  more  wages. 
Nor  leave  your  native  city  and  go  to  South 
America. 

But  you  must  use  your  brains  a little  more 
than  you  have  been  in  the  habit  of  doing.  It 
: won’t  make  your  head  ache.  It  didn’t  hurt  our 
heads.  You  must  study  up  on  how  other  men 

0 became  rich  and  go  and  do  likewise.  Of  course, 
we  know  how  foolish  it  is  to  try  to  save  a mil- 
lion dollars  out  of  nine  dollars  a week.  It  will 
take  just  2,137  years  if  you  save  it  all  and  steal 
your  food  and  clothes.  And  we  know  that  rich 
men  are  not  celebrated  for  economy,  but  for 
extravagance.  And  besides,  we  are  not  telling 

V you  how  to  save  a million  dollars,  but  how  to 
; earn  ten  dollars  a day  by  steady  work  at  your 
^ chosen  vocation.  We  are  not  advising  you  to 

1 strike  or  ask  your  boss  for  more  pay.  Our  plan 
is  worth  a hundred  of  that.  We  know  that  you 
would  like  to  know  the  plan.  You  don’t  believe 

^ it,  of  course.  You  think  we  want  you  to  peddle 
books  or  something.  You  think  we  are  trying 
to  bite  you.  But  you  would  like  to  know  just 
, what  kind  of  a game  we  are  trying  to  work  on 
you?  Just  read  on. 

' How  do  other  men  get  rich?  First,  take  the 
. bankers.  Several  men,  with  some  property  or 
^ business  and  a little  money  and  more  credit, 
decide  to  start  a bank.  They  get  a franchise 


4 


LET’S  ALL  GET  RICH 


and  a lot  ot  special  privileges  from  the  state  and 
rent  an  office  and  buy  some  imposing  books  and 
a little  furniture  and  a safe,  most  likely  on 
credit  and  hire  one  or  two  clerks,  and  they  are 
ready  for  business.  The  various  members  of 
the  company  deposit  their  own  mondy  in  the 
bank  tojnspire  confidence  and  induce  other  peo- 
ple to  do  likewise.  These  deposits  are  loaned 
but  at  interest  upoh  good  security,  and  the  bank- 
ers pay  the  clerks  and  all  debts  and  their  divi- 
dends out  of  this  interest.  After  a while,  when 
they  get  deposits  enough,  they  decide  to  estab- 
lish a national  bank,  as  that  pays  better.  So 
they  send  off  the  required  amount  of  depositors^ 
cash,  or  money  borrowed  upon  loaned-out  de- 
posits, and  get  United  States  bonds.  These 
bonds  are  deposited  with  the  United  States  for 
safe-keeping  and  the  money  is  returned  to  the 
bank  to  do  business  upon.  And  the  banker 
draws  interest  upon  the  bonds  and  the  money, 
too.  And  the  city  and  county  and  state  deposit 
money  in  the  bank,  which  is  also  loaned  out, 
and  the  bankers  get  rich.  And  the  bankers  have 
laws  passed  to  do  away  with  silver  money  and 
greenbacks  so  the  banking  business  will  be  bet- 
ter. And  sometimes  they  bribe  our  officers  to 
grant  them  special  favors  and  tax  them  lightly. 

Take  another  class.  Railroad  companies.  Sev- 
eral business  men  decide  to^build  a railroad. 
They  first  get  a franchise,  with  a lot  of  special 
privileges,  from  the  state.  Then  they  go  out 
along  the  proposed  line  and  get  donations  of 
money  and  land  and  labor  and  material  from 
the  towns  and  people  who  are  willing.  And 
they  condemn  the  property  of  the  unwilling  and 
take  it  anyhow,  for  that  is  one  of  the  special 
privileges  granted  by  the  franchise.  If  the  do- 
nations are  not  sufficient  to  build  the  road,  and 
often  when  they  are,  the  company  borrows 


LET’S  ALL  GET  RICH 


5 


money  upon  the  donations  and  issues  stock  upon 
the  future  prospects  for  trade*  They  buy  a lot 
of  material,  upon  credit  if  they  can,  and  hire  a 
lot  of  men  at  a dollar  a day  to  do  the  work. 
And  when  two  towns  are  connected  by  rail  the 
company  begins  to  charge  ten  prices  for  hauling 
passengers  and  freight  and  gets  a lot  more  spe- 
cial privileges  from  the  government.  As  haul- 
ing mail  and  soldiers,  etc.,  at  ten  prices.  And 
w^hen  the  hands  get  the  road  built  and  the  trains 
running,  and  have  earned  enough  to  pay  off  all 
the  debts  and  are  earning  big  dividends,  then 
the  hands  come  in  for  a share  of  the  profits  in 
the  shape  of  better  wages.  Not  by  a jug  full. 
The  company  gets  rich  and  bribes  our  oflScers  to 
grant  them  more  special  privileges  and  evades 
its  just  portion  of  taxation. 

Take  manufacturing.  A company  of  men  get 
a franchise  and  the  necessary  special  privileges 
that  go  with  it.  The  members  of  the  company 
must  have  some  property  or  business  upon, 
which  to  borrow  money  to  hire  men  to  build  the 
factory.  The  machinery  can  be  bought  on  cred- 
it. Of  course,  it  is  better  to  pay  cash.  But  very 
few  rich  men  had  much  cash  to  begin  with. 
When  the  factory  is  ready  a lot  of  boys  and 
girls  and  men  and  women  are  hired  to  produce 
a lot  of  stuff  for  sale.  They  don’t  produce  the 
things  they  want  nor  things  the  company  wants, 
but  things  which  will  sell.  They  work  hard  and 
produce  enough  to  pay  off  all  the  debts  and  pay 
the  company  big  dividends  as  well  as  pay  their 
own  wages.  And  when  the  hands  get  the  fac- 
tory all  paid  for  and  making  money  their  wages 
are  increased  and  everybody  is  happy.  Only  it 
doesn’t  happen  that  way.  The  owners  get  rich 
and  dodge  taxes  and  have  laws  passed  to  keep 
down  competition  and  make  special  arrange- 
ments with  railroads  and  form  trusts  with  other 


I 


6 LET’S  ALL  GET  RICH 

factories.  And  where  do  the  hands  come  in? 
They  don’t  come  'in  at  all.  They  do  the  work 
and  often  have  to  trade  out  their  wages  at  the 
company  store.  The  factory  is  not  run  for  the 
benefit  of  the  workers  or  the  customers,  either, 
but  for  the  special  benefit  of  the  company. 

Now  take  the  merchant.  The  merchant  has 
a hard  row  to  hoe.  Any  one  can  be  a merchant 
who  has  a little  money  or  property.  A merchant 
gets  no  franchise.  And  he  doesn’t  get  rich, 
either.  He  doesn’t  get  ten  dollars  a day.  Only 
in  rare  cases.  And  then  we  see  the  same  old 
story.  Special  privileges  enabling  him  to  over- 
reach his  neighbors.  Special  railroad  rates. 
Special  prices  from  the  factories.  A lot  of  clerks 
doing  a lot  of  work  for  almost  nothing.  A lot 
of  borrowed  money  paid  back  by  the  hard  work 
of  clerks  and  customers.  And  the  company 
makes  money  and  keeps  it  and  has  laws  passed 
to  keep  out  peddlers  and  auctioneers  and  to  help 
business.  And  some  of  them  cheat  the  tax  col- 
lector as  well. 

Take  gold  mining.  When  a lot  of  men  go  out 
to  prospect  for  gold,  do  they  go  as  a well-drilled 
army,  able  and  willing  to  develop  any  mine  they 
may  find  and  all  get  rich?  No,  sir.  They  rush 
in  like  pigs  answering  the  swill  call  and  each 
one  anxious  to  get  his  feet  in  the  trough  and 
each  one  trying  to  keep  the  others  out.  Of 
course,  the  biggest  hog  gets  the  most  swill.  Now 
the  capitalist  comes  along.  A lot  of  people  have 
lent  him  a lot  of  money  to  invest  in  a gold  mine. 
He  has  a "franchise  and  all  the  special  privileges 
that  go  with  it.  He  looks  around  and  buys  the 
mine  that  best  suits  him.  He  hires  a lot  of  men 
to  do  the  work:  and  the  rush  is  over.  The  men 
get  out  the  gold  and  the  government  coins  it 
into  money  and  gives  it  back  to  the  capitalists. 
He  uses  some  of  it  to  pay  wages  and  some  to 


LET’S  ALL  GET  RICH 


7 


pay  debts  and  keeps  the  rest.  No  matter  what 
company  we  investigate  we  will  find  these  three 
things: 

1.  A lot  of  people  doing  a lot  of  work  for  very 
little  money. 

2.  A company  getting  a lot  of  money  for  very 
little  really  useful  work. 

3.  A lot  of  special  privileges  enabling  the  sue- 
cessful  company  to  overreach  the  other  compa- 
nies. 

No  mine  or  factory  or  any  other  enterprise 
can  be  carried  on  without  trained,  orderly  work- 
ers. But  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  for  the 
trainer  to  keep  all  the  profit^.  Vanderbilt  be- 
came enormously  wealthy  by  getting  other  peo- 
ple to  work  for  him.  Carnegie  became  rich  be- 
yond the  dreams  of  avarice  by  training  other 
men  to  work  for  him.  So  did  Jay  Gould  and 
Morgan  and  Rockefeller  and  a thousand  others. 
These  men  began  life  just  like  yourself,  but  they 
had  a special  faculty  for  getting  other  people 
to  work  for  them  instead  of  for  themselves.  And 
for  getting  donations  and  valuable  franchises 
and  special  privileges  and  tariff  laws  from  city 
and  state  and  nation.  All  for  their  own  private 
use  and  special  benefit.  v 

Now  you  may  think  you  have  wasted  your 
time  in  reading  this.  You  knew  it  all  before  and 
don’t  see  how  it  will  benefit  you. 

Well,  we  have  organized  a company,  just  as 
these  other  companies  were  organized,  to  go 
into  the  mining  and  manufacturing  and  farming 
business.  We  have  an  army  of  men  who  are 
willing  to  work  in  our  mines  and  factories  and 
on  our  farms  at  ten  dollars  a day.  Now'  all  w^e 
meed  is^a  franchise  and  some  special  legislation 
from  the  various  states  and  from  congress.  You 
are  to  help  us  to  get  our  franchise  and  legisla- 
tion and  we  will  give  you  a life  time  job  at  ten 


S LET’S  ALL  GET  RICH 

dollars  a day.  Of  course,  you  cannot  begin  to 
work  until  we  get  our  factories  built,  but  that 
will  not  take  long  after  we  get  our  franchise. 

Now,  of  course,  you  think  we  are  trying  to 
bribe  you  or  buy  your  vote.  Or  that  we  are  ly- 
ing to  you.  But  we  are  not.  This  is  a plain 
business  proposition  and  has  plenty  of  prece- 
dents. The  government  charges  a tariff  upon 
imports  to  aid  manufacturers.  The  government 
paid  a bounty  upon  sugar  and  gave  bounties  to 
several  other  companies  for  various  purposes. 
The  government  gave  the  Bell  Telephone  Com- 
pany a monopoly  for  seventeen  years  and  de- 
stroyed the  instruments  of  other  companies. 

The  government  gave  vast  tracts  of  land  to 
railroad  companies  and  to  farmers.  The  gov- 
ernment gives  the  banks  the  use  of  millions  of 
dollars  of  public  money.  And  our  company  does 
not  ask  for  a single  law  or  privilege  that  is  not 
for  the  benefit  of  all  the  people. 

Perhaps  you  would  like  to  know  what  kind  of 
a company  this  is  and  what  we  propose  to  do. 

We  propose  to  operate  farms  and  factories  and 
stores  and  railroads  and  mines  and  every  kind 
of  business  or  industry  on  a scale  never  before 
attempted.  We  propose  to  raise  and  produce 
and  manufacture  and  sell  and  deliver  every  arti- 
cle that  is  in  use  in  the  United  States  in  quanti- 
ties sufficient  to  supply  every  want  of  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  the  whole  country. 

This  is  a big  proposition,  isn’t  it?  None  but 
the  ablest  business  men  would  dare  undertake 
such  an  enterprise,  would  they? 

Well,  now,  we  have  just  such  men  in  our  com- 
pany. We  have  over  a milKon  of  the  best  and 
brainiest  men  in  the  whole  country.  Professors 
and  millionaires  and  artists  and  doctors  and 
lawyers  and  preachers  and  farmers  and  work- 
ingmen of  every  craft  and  trade.  Men  who 


LET’S  ALL  GET  RICH  9 

understand  everj^  detail  of  the  complex  busi- 
ness we  are  about  to  undertake.  We  have  over 
a million  members,  and  we  want  more.  The 
more  members  we  have  the  stronger  our  com- 
pany will  be. 

We  want  you  to  help  us  to  elect  men  to  con- 
gress and  the  legislature  who  will  pass  laws  to 
establish  factories  and  stores  and  railroads  and 
farms  and  open  up  mines  and  all  kinds  of  in- 
dustries, or  buy  those  already  in  operation.  And 
have  the  President  appoint  officers  to  manage 
all  these  industries  as  economically  as  possible 
and  pay  off  every  cent  of  debt  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble. And  when  every  debt  has  been  paid  the 
wages  of  every  man  working  in  any  of  the 
branches  of  these  combined  industries  are  to  be 
increased  to  ten  dollars  a day  or  until  the  total 
wages  just  consumes  the  total  product  and 
leaves  no  surplus  or  profit.  And  everybody  is  to 
keep  on  working  the  same  as  before. 

. Now  you  see  the  scheme.  But  we  can’t  catch 
you  in  anything  like  that,  can  we?  It’s  a fool 
scheme  with  a big  F,  isn’t  it?  And  where  does 
the  company  come  in?  How  will  the  company 
get  possession  of  the  industries  which  congress 
has  established  and  which  the  special  officers 
are  managing?  Why,  we  just  won’t  try  to  get 
possession  of  the  factories  and  other  industries. 
What  on  earth  do  we  want  to  possess  them  for? 
Can’t  the  special  officers  run  them  as  well  as 
anybody  else?  And  we  will  all  get  jobs  at  ten 
dollars  a day  and  that  is  all  we  want. 

How  about  people  who  do  not  belong  to  the 
company?  Oh,  they  will  get  ten  dollar-a-day 
jobs  just  the  same  as  the  rest  of  us.  Suppose 
they  don’t  want  to  work  for  ten  dollars  a day? 
Oh,  well!  They  needn’t  work  at  all  if  they 
don’t  want  to.  And  that  is  more  than  you  can 
say,  nine-dollar-a-week  friend.  We  don’t  worry 


10  LET’S  ALL  GET  lilCH 

about  people  who  can  turn  down  a ten-dollar-a- 
day  job. 

How  can  we  find  jobs  for  everybody?  Oh, 
that  is  easy.  Most  of  the  people  have  jobs  now, 
haven’t  they?  And  lots  of  women  and  children 
now  working  in  factories  would  be  taken  out  if 
men  could  get  steady  work  at  good  wages, 
wouldn’t  they?  And  the  factories  do  not  pro- 
duce enough  of  anything  to  give  more  than  half 
the  people  plenty  of  anything.  Suppose  the  fac- 
tories produced  enough  of  everything  to  give 
you  and  everybody  else  all  you  would  buy  if 
you  and  everybody  else  received  ten  dollars  a 
day?  Don’t  you  think  there  would  be  plenty  of 
work?  Wouldn’t  the  factories  need  all  the  men 
they  could  get?  There  are  about  twenty  million 
men  of  over  18  years  in  this  country.  At  ten 
dollars  a day  they  would  have  two  hundred 
million  dollars  a day  to  spend.  Don’t  you  think 
it  will  take  every  able-bodied  man  in  the  coun- 
try and  some  from  foreign  parts  to  produce  this 
amount  of  merchandise? 

How  are  we  going  to  pay  so  much  wages? 
That  will  be  no  trouble  if  the  people  will  buy 
what  they  want.  If  twenty  million  men  draw 
ten  dollars  a day  each  and  spend  it  all  with  the 
company  there  will  always  be  enough  in  the 
treasury  to  pay  the  next  day’s  wages.  No,  we 
didn’t  forget  about  raw  material.  We  will  not 
buy  any  raw  material.  We  will  produce  all  the 
raw  material  we  use.  And  the  men  who  do  the 
work  will  receive  ten  dollars  a day. 

If  all  the  twenty  million  men  are  working  in 
the  factories  and  other  industries,  who  will  keep 
the  stores?  We  will  not  have  any  stores  except 
one  little  shop  in  each  ward  of  the  city,  whk‘h 
will  keep  thread  and  candy  and  cigars  and  ice 
cream  and  soda  water  and  such  things  as  you 
do  not  care  to  go  downtown  after  or  order  by 


LET’S  ALL  GET  RICH  11 

teloplione.  Everything  will  be  sold  direct  from 
the  factory  or  railroad  depot. 

S appose  the  people  only  spent  five  dollars  a 
day  and  saved  the  other  five?  How  would  we 
keep  on  paying  ten  dollars  a day  wages?  Then 
people  would  only  buy  half  the  product  of  the 
factories  and  the  other  half  must  be  exported 
and  sold  abroad  to  get  money  enough  to  pay 
wages.  Suppose  all  the  people  should  save  half 
of  all  their  wages  for  twenty  years  and  then 
conclude  that  they  had  plenty  to  lay  off  and  take 
life  easy.  What  would  happen  then? 

What  will  happen  to  our  nine-dollars-a-week 
friend  when  he  has  worked  hard  for  twenty 
years?  Won’t  he  be  laid  off  because  he  is  too 
old  to  work?  Will  he  take  life  easy?  Will  he 
have  enough  laid  by  for  his  old  age?  When 
did  he  ever  have  plenty  of  anything?  Apd 
what  are  your  prospects,  friend?  Who  is 
worrying  about  what  will  happen  when  you 
have  worked  hard  for  twenty  years?  It  seems 
like  a long  way  to  go  to  borrow  trouble.  And 
besides,  new  workers  are  being  born  every  min- 
ute. And  old  ones  are  dying  off.  So  there  will 
be  enough  new  workers  to  run  the  factories  and 
other  industries  without  working  old  people  to 
death. 

Now  we  know  that  you  think  it  is  absolutely 
impossible  for  us  to  keep  wages  up  to  ten  dol- 
lars a day.  But  a little  study  will  convince  you 
that  ten  dollars  a day  for  every  single  worker,- 
white,  black  or  yellow,  will  be  the  minimum 
wage.  Why  just  think  of  the  army  of  men  w^ho 
do  no  really  useful  work  at  all,  who  are  sup- 
ported by  those  who  do  useful  work.  There  is 
an  army  of  storekeepers  and  drummers  and 
bankers  and  insurance  men  and  advertisers  and 
canvassers  and  lawyers  and  tramps  and  gam- 
blers and  brokers  and  commission  men  and  col- 


12 


LET’S  ALL  GET  RICH 


lectors  and  patent  medicine  men  and  real  estate 
men  as  well  as  soldiers.  And  all  those  engaged 
in  making  shoddy  clothing  and  adulterated  food 
as  Avell  as  making  and  advertising  and  selling 
all  kinds  of  trash.  We  will  offer  all  these  peo- 
ple ten  dollars  a day  to  work  in  our  factories 
and  industries,  which  will  he  equipped  with  the 
best  machinery  and  will  produce  only  high-class 
goods.  And  all  these  pejople  will  accept  our 
offer,  for  it  is  more  than  they  can  make  now. 
Even  thieves  and  burglars  will  apply  for  work, 
for  they  can  earn  a better  living  than  they  can 
possibly  steal.  We  will  not  engage  in  any 
wasteful  competition  or  rent  any  buildings  or 
run  any  stores  or  hire  any  drummers  or  ad- 
vertise or  do  any  credit  business  or  keep  any 
more  books  than  just  a cash  book  and  stock 
book.  Every  man  will  be  put  where  he  can 
earn  the  most  and  all  expenses  will  be  reduced 
to  the  lowest  possible  limit  to  leave  more  money 
to  go  for  wages. 

And  still  you  think  this  is  all  moonshine.  A 
beautiful  dream  which  you  wish  could  be  true, 
but  you  know  it  cannot  be. 

Friend,  you  were  never  more  mistaken  in  your 
life.  We  have  more  than  a million  of  the  brain- 
iest men  in  the  country  who  know  just  what 
they  want  and  just  how  to  get  it.  And  who  are 
working  as  hard  as  they  can  to  get  the  thing 
started. 

If  J.  P.  Morgan  can  organize  a lot  of  railroads 
and  steamships  and  mines  and  factories  and 
banks  into  one  great  company  and  pay  to  him- 
self and  friends  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars 
every  year,  then  our  company  can  organize  a 
lot  of  other  industries  into  a company  and  pay 
to  ourselves  ten  dollars  a day  which  we  earn  in 
our  own  factories  and  mines  and  other  indus- 
tries. And  that  is  just  what  we  propose  to  do. 


13^ 


ALL  GET 


RICH 


and  by  means  which  you  will  heartily  indorse 
when  you  once  understand.  We  were  once  just 
as  skittish  about  Socialism  as  you  are.  But  we 
know  better  now.  There! 

Now  the  cat  is  out  of  the  bag.  We  are  just  a 
lot  of  Socialists  who  want  to  take  everything 
away  from  everybody  and  divide  it  up.  But 
please  remember  that  we  never  said  anything 
about  dividing  anything  or  taking  anything 
away  from  anybody.  Do  you  suppose  we  could 
get  sensible  people  to  indorse  any  such  scheme? 
You  are  a sensible  man.  Would  you  go  into 
any  such  scheme?  Well,  then,  neither  would 
we.  We  will  pay  for  everything  we  get.  We 
will  vote  for  men  for  congress  who  will  appro- 
priate money  to  establish  all  the  industries 
needed  under  Socialism.  We  might  as  well  call 
it  by  its  right  name.  Special  agents  will  be 
appointed  to  manage  all  these  industries  as  eco- 
nomically as  possible  and  pay  off  every  debt  and 
return  every  cent  of  money  advanced  by  con- 
gress before  raising  wages  to  ten  dollars  a day 
and  launching  us  into  a life  of  extravagance 
that  will  last  until  everybody  gets  enough  of 
everything  that  men  can  make  or  money  can 
buy. 

No.  This  will  not  break  up  your  home.  Your 
wife  will  not  leave  you  because  you  can  sup- 
port her  as  well  as  any  other  man.  Your  daugh- 
ters will  not  seek  evil  lives  because  they  do  not 
have  to  work  for  two  dollars  a week  and  be- 
cause they  no  longer  look  forward  to  a life  as 
housekeeper  for  some  nine-dollar-a-week  man 
as  the  goal  of  their  lives.  Your  sons  will  not  be 
more  apt  to  seek  bad  influence  when  you  can 
give  them  books  and  tools  and  bicycles  and 
other  pleasant  things  which  you  cannot  now 
afford.  And  we  think  saloons  will  be  rather 
scarce  simply  because  it  will  be  rather  hard  to 


find  men  to  sell  whisky  or  make  it  either  when 
they  can  get  ten  dollars  a day  for  doing  some- 
thing else.  Men  are  quite  touchy  upon  points 
of  honor  when  they  can  afford  it.  We  don’t 
believe  you  would  like  the  job  even  at  a hun- 
dred dollars  a day. 

No,  friend,  we  cannot  see  that  you  have  any- 
thing to  lose  by  Socialism,  and  you  have  a great 
deal  to  gain.  We  would  like  to  have  you  study 
it  out  for  yourself.  Subscribe  for  a Socialist 
paper.  It  won’t  cost  much  and  will  tell  you 
many  things.  Election  comes  in  1904.  Now 
don’t  you  throw  this  aside  as  a madman’s  rav- 
ings. 

Remember  that  the  number  of  Socialist  votes 
is  growing  every  minute,  and  we  are  in  deadly 
earnest.  We  know  that  our  plan  will  work. 

Study  these  things.  When  you  have  read  this 
hand  it  to  some  one  else.  Let  your  wife  read 
it.  She  can  appreciate  the  difference  between 
nine  dollars  a week  and  ten  dollars  a day. 

As  a postscript  we  wish  to  quote  a few  fig- 
ures from  the  last  census.  For  instance,  the 
long  column,  which  foots  up  7,416,286,  was 
taken  from  a much  longer  column  and  enumer- 
ates those  people  for  whom  Socialism  will  find 
other  and  much  more  productive  employment. 
Just  think  what  an  army  of  people  eating, 
Tvearing  clothes,  living  in  houses,  drawing 
wages,  consuming  the  products  of  other  people’s 
toil  and  producing  nothing  themselves.  To  be 
sure,  they  work  hard  trying  to  avoid  hard  work. 
Or,  rather,  they  are  thus  engaged  because  they 
can  find  nothing  more  useful  to  do. 

And  there  is  an  army  of  gamblers  and  thieves 
and  tramps  besides  who  eat  what  others  pro- 
duce and  produce  nothing  themselves.  There 
are  10,438,219  persons  engaged  in  agricultural 
pursuits  and  any  one  who  has  ever  seen  a “bo- 


nauza  farm"  knows  that  half  a million  men 
with  up-to-date  machinery  and  a business-like 
system  of  working  can  produce  more  than  these 
ten  million  do  now  with  their  little  farms  and 
antiquated  methods. 

Socialism  proposes  to  make  open  air  factories 
out  of  farms  and  hire  men  at  ten  dollars  a day 
to  operate  them  in  the  same  manner  and  with 
the  same  sj^stem  as  indoor  factories.  And  the 
produ-ct  will  be  increased  so  enormously  that 
there  will  be  plenty  of  everything  for  every- 
body. And  everybody  will  be  able  to  buy  what 
everybody  wants. 


TOTAL  POPULATION  OP  UNITED  STATES. 


Persons  '70,303,387 

Voters 21,329,819 

Families 16,239,797 

Homes 16,006,437 

Rented  homes 8,246,747 

Unincumbered  homes  4,731,914 

Encumbered’  homes  2,180,229 

Unknown  homes  839,547 

ENGAGED  IN  GAINFUL  OCCUPATIONS. 

Males  over  10  years  23,956,115 

Females  5,329,807 


29,285,922 


Agriculture  10,438,219 

Professions  1,264,737 

Domestic  service  5,691fr46 

Trade  and  transportation  4,778,233 

Manufacturing : 7,112,987 

LARGELY  USELESS  OCCUPATIONS. 

Ministers  111,942 

Lawyers  114,703 

Bartenders 88,937 

Saloonkeepers 83,875 

Bankers  and  brokers  73,384 

Agents 241,^3 

Traveling  salesmen  92,936 

Salesmen  and  saleswomen  611,787 


16 


LET’S  ALL  GET  RICH 


Hucksters  and  peddlers  76,872 

Retail  merchants 792,887 

Wholesale  merchants  42,310 

Butchers 114,212 

Bakers  79,407 

Bookkeepers  255,562 

[Clerks  and  copyists 570,105 

OflSicers  of  companies  74,246 

Stenographers  and  typewriters  112,464 

Manufacturers  and  contractors  243,963 

Railroad  station  employes  45,992 

IT  Office  boys 16,727 

Cash  and  bundle  boys  10,508 

Messenger  boys  , 48,460 

Porters  and  helpers  in  stores  ! 54,274 

Personal  service  . ...  43,008 

Janitors  51,226 

Watchmen  and  police 116,615 

Soldiers  and  sailors  126,615 

Servants  (mostly  women)  1,458,010 

Waiters  107,430 

Hotelkeepers 54,931 

Boarding  house  (mostly  women)  71,371 

Restaurant  keepers  34,023 

Hand  laundry  (mostly  women)  365,056 

Dressmakers  (mostly  women)  347,040 

Milliners  (mostly  women)  i . . . 87,881 

Seamstresses  (women)  151,379 

Tailors 2^0,277 

Shoemakers  (not  in  factories)  101,(M3 

Packers  and  shippers  ' 59,769 

Carriage  and  hack  drivers  36,794 

Undertakers  16,200 


7,416,286 


booklet  entitled,  “What  to  Read  on  Social- 
ism,” will  be  mailed  to  any  one  requesting  it 
Address 

PHARLES  H.  KERR  & COMPANY, 

Publishers, 

56  Fifth  avenue,  Chicago. 


